Would be nice to find something that would be z7 hardy and tasted fairly decent, of course, taste is different to different people. I find I like some citrus only if really sweet (oranges and tangerines), but can eat ripe lemons too (which are not normally described as sweet).

I'm afraid anything zone 7a hardy will require a fair bit of trifoliata in it.

Is there anything hardy to Zone 6?

Still looking and I hope it works for you Dave))

Mike

good luck, a candidate for breeding once again?

Mike

PT and FD are the only thing that can live in zone 6

Very interesting. That's one I did t know about. Thanks for sharing the info.

I have a number of immature TaiTri seedlings approaching 1 1/2 years of age. They withstood last winter's mild temperatures in zone 6b inside an unheated cold frame. I've high-grafted several on mature, outdoor Poncirus to evaluate their hardiness in my area. I suspect they'll be a bit less hardy than my experimental citranges.

TaiTri initially has slender, flexible twigs well armed with slender thorns. Thorns are certainly not strangers to anyone growing Poncirus and it's hybrids.

Tai Tri, can be used as a hobby ornamental, unfortunately the fruit is terrible.

I've actually gotten some scions to take on Tai-tri root stock this summer. We'll see about long-term viability.

I'm not going to be using any hybrids

but I'm going to push my lemons to take the cold winters here in Ashland Kentucky in a pot of clay soil and I know I'm challenging my trees and pushing my luck

I had a talk with Nat Bradford, who had good things to say about the hardiness of Taiwanica lemon. (on April 5, 2019) This is the same Nat Bradford whose name is connected to the Bradford watermelon, once a famous heirloom variety in the South, and he did an internship at Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania.

He used to live in Seneca, South Carolina, which he insisted is zone 7a. (I'm looking at a USDA hardiness map and Seneca appears to be listed as being on the border of zone 8a/7b though, but I pressed him on this point at he was adamant that the location was definitely not in zone 8 )
He said he grew a Taiwanica lemon and a C. ichangensis (though he later sent me a picture and I think it was in actuality a citrangequat which he had misidentified) outside there unprotected, and they have survived for 7 years. At one point he says the temperature got down to 4 °F. He says his Taiwanica lemon survived all this time. I specifically asked if it had survived the freeze in 2017-2018, and he said yes, he had gone back to the property and saw the tree was still there, even though he doesn't live there anymore. The Taiwanica was grown from a seedling and is not grafted. He initially grew them in one gallon pots and left them outside, they survived. Then he eventually planted them out into the ground.
The other one has lost leaves and the leaves have turned yellow-brown every Winter, but he says the Taiwanica did not lose leaves. His Taiwanica has fruited, but he says the other one has never set flowers.

I have had the opportunity to taste a Tai-tri fruit, someone mailed one to me so I could harvest the seeds. The fruits do unfortunately have a definite unpalatable poncirus smell to them. I would best describe it as smelling like baby wipes, not in a good way.

They are probably edible more in the sense of a survival situation, if you desperately needed to eat something and were willing to deal with a less than pleasant eating experience.

Probably only a slight improvement in eating quality over pure Poncirus trifoliata itself.

Tai-tri is probably a lot cold hardier than the rest of "hardy" citrus. I would guess it could probably survive zone 6b at a latitude somewhere like Virginia, if it was planted in a protected spot up against a wall, among some big bushes to help block the wind.

" Would be nice to find something that would be z7 hardy and tasted fairly decent, of course, taste is different to different people. "

Yes, taste is very subjective, relative to different individual personal tastes.

There was one guy in another forum who said he grew several Yuzu trees, but then when they finally fruited and he got to taste them for the first time, he was disappointed in the flavor and chopped them all down. If you don't find Yuzu to be edible, then it is doubtful you will find other hardy citrus varieties to be any better. Guess he was expecting something sweet and seedless more like something normal you'd get in the supermarket.

I also have a Clem-Yuz, a hybrid of Clementine and Yuzu. I keep it in a pot and indoors for winter, so no ideas on hardiness. However, the fruit is quite good when dead-ripe.

it sounds like if you want a particular flavor you must breed it in

for all my lemons came from the supermarket

Dave how does it smell? The yuzu is almost inedible with so many seeds just like your picture above but the fragrance of the skin is what many chefs value!

and I got one bunch of lemons I found out the variety and that is Eureka lemons

Jan, smell? You mean the Clem-Yuz fruit? Or the blossoms? The Clem-Yuz fruit tastes pretty close to a slightly tart Clementine. When dead-ripe, very tasty. I like some tart in my citrus. Here it was in my garage last winter.

Yuzu is great for making tea, if you have any Korean or Asian grocery stores you can find some if you are curious. It's usually labeled "citron yea" but in the Korean hangul it's labeled as "Yuja" which is yuzu. You can also make it at home by slicing it up and adding sugar or honey at an equal ratio.

Dave, I have a taitri in zone 7a growing profusely which I'm going to leave out for the winter and see how it fares.

I just want to let everyone know that Yuzu, while it may not be considered the best fruit eating quality by many people, is still very very different from poncirus trifoliata hybrids like Tai-tri.

The rind of a Yuzu can actually be delicious, if prepared the right way. The rind of Tai-tri will be completely inedible and carry a terrible distinctive poncirus flavor, some say comparable to kerosene, but to me more reminiscent of the smell of baby wipes and not in a good way.

Tai-tri certainly will be a lot hardier than Yuzu. (Tai-tri might survive zone 7 or even 6b in a protected spot, whereas yuzu is likely only to be able to survive the coldest parts of 8a)

To eat a Yuzu, I usually cut up into 6 segments, pop out all the seeds in each segment, which is actually not so difficult because even though there are a lot of seeds the size of the seeds is very big. Then after that, I take the segments, with the peel still on, and dice it up into little pieces. It's great to use in a ponzu sauce. Yuzu blueberry muffins are another possibility. Yuzu really is comparable to citron in a lot of ways because the peel is very soft tender and not so bitter tasting like the peel of normal lemons or oranges. So there are a lot of possible culinary uses.

If anyone wants to eat Tai-Tri, I would look up how to eat Poncirus trifoliata, and ways to prepare it. Tai-Tri will only be slightly improved eating quality compared to Poncirus trifoliata.

Which is to say, no one would want to eat it so long as they have the option of normal oranges and lemons at the supermarket.

But maybe in a post apocalyptic future, if oranges and lemons ever became unavailable in colder places, and certain persons really missed the idea of citrus, these strange hybrids like Tai-Tri might have some value. But I think even then, it would only be the most adventurous who would eat them.

I have no knowledge about that type of citrus

Victor zone 7a: Let us know how yours does. Where abouts do you live?

I have several supposedly better tasting, or more accurately, less horrible tasting Poncirus seedlings known as Poncirus+. These are only 1 1/2 years old and several years away from fruiting. They have made vigorous growth and have reached 6' in height in this time.

There are suggestions of remaking some of the early Citrus-Poncirus hybrids using this supposedly less offensive tasting selection.

I'm not wanting to use that kind of genetics

Ashland,Kentucky zone 6b

@Dave in NoVA • N. Virginia • zone 7A I'm in NJ

Poncirus fruits pollinated by Meyer lemon.

400+ Poncirus rootstocks and Segentranges planted outdoors. ~ 60% of these are Segentranges grafted on Poncirus, the remainder are Poncirus rootstocks awaiting grafting.

Notable thorns on vigorous Segentrange Conestoga 011 branch.

Poncirus fruits pollinated by Meyer lemon.

Meyer lemons pollinated by segentrange pollen.

Segentrange self-pollinated fruits.